The koine/common Greek used in the Bible
was written without any punctuation, had no spaces between words, and was written
in one long stream. This, and especially the lack of punctuation marks like
commas, periods, colons, and semicolons, requires the modern reader sometimes
to make assumptions as to the exact literal meaning. After centuries of
scholarly study, this is not known to have ever obscured the theological
messages being presented.
This is present in the question of
exactly how many women were at the foot of the cross? Were there three or were
there four? Depending on how they are identified there could have been more
than four. We do know that more women were present but were standing farther
back.
These women standing farther back probably
included Joanna (Luke 8:2-3, 24:10), who was the wife of Chuza, who was
the personal steward of Herod Antipas.
Women were strongly attracted to Jesus.
They lived in a totally male-dominated world but he treated them with actual
respect as if they had brains and were actual people.
John was at the foot of the cross with
the women (John 19:26-27) but where were all the other men? Well, they ran away or were hanging
farther back into the crowd which was there to see the crucifixion. They were
afraid. Matthew 26:56
A literal, word-for-word translation
of Matthew 27:55-56: Were and / now there
women many from afar off / a distance beholding / looking on who / which had
followed to the Jesus from the Galilee ministering to / serving Him in / among whom
was Mary the Magdalene and Mary the of James and Joseph / Joses mother and the mother
of the sons Zebedee (four women)
A literal,
word-for-word translation of Mark
15:40-41: They were and /
now also women from / out of afar off / a distance beholding / looking on /
observing in whom also / both Mary the Magdalene and Mary the of James the little
/ younger / less and of Joses / Joseph mother and Salome who when he was in the
Galilee were following him and were ministering to / serving him and other many
the ones having come up with him into / to Jerusalem (four women)
A literal,
word-for-word translation of Luke
23:27: Was following / was
trailing behind and / now / moreover to Him / Him much / great / large crowd /
multitude / crowded mass of the people and of women who / which were beating
themselves / were lamenting and were wailing / were mourning / singing dirges
Him (The number of
women is not stated and they are not individually named)
A literal,
word-for-word translation of John
19:23-25: they had stood /
were standing now / and / but beside / near / by the cross / stake of the of
Jesus the mother of him / his and the sister of the of mother of him / his Mary
the of the of Clopas / Cleopas and Mary the Magdalene / of Magdala (Either
three or four women depending on whether or not Mary, the wife of Cleophas, was
the sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother. The word could also mean female relative,
especially since some traditions say that Cleophas/Clopas was Joseph’s brother)
The women who are
mentioned include:
Jesus’mother,
Mary (Miryam, Miriam)
Mary’s
sister (possibly Salome, or Mary who was the wife of
Clopas, or a different woman entirely)
Mary, the wife of Clopas/Cleophas. Tradition says
that Clopas was the brother of Joseph.
Salome, who may have been the sister who is
mentioned above. Tradition says she was the mother of the apostles James and
John.
Mary the Magdalene
Mary, the mother of James the Less
The
mother of the sons of Zebedee
You sort them out.
This is like a situation which genealogists often run into while tracing family
ancestry. Often in one small community there are several men of the same name
and roughly of the same age. It can be difficult.
Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus showed up to claim Jesus’ body for burial after he was declared
to be dead. John 19:38-40
Remember that the New
Testament is written in the Greek which was in common everyday use at that
time. The contemporary readers would have understood exactly what was being
said. We are the ones with the problem.
The fact that the
four recountings of this event are not exactly word-for-word identical shows
that the Gospels, while God-inspired, were written by four different men with
different writing styles and different levels of proficiency in Greek and that God used
each man to say what God wanted to be said.
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